A life-time after the Shoah:
Forgetting is not an option
and memory only goes so far.
When prayers are not enough,
music can keep us going.
It is not too late to mourn,
and not too soon to replenish.
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Redemption Blues
is a film about the thorny legacy of the Holocaust generation and the insights of some of its last survivors. The film begins where conventional Shoah narratives leave off and traces a path forward, through personal and emotional engagement towards hope.
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> Peter Stastny CV
Director’s Statement
For many years I was looking for a way to use film as a redemptive form in the face of the massive trauma endured by my family and the entire population of Europe during the Second World War.
The task was daunting and I knew that it could not simply involve regurgitating the events that have been recounted and represented in myriads of films before. I needed to find a way to go beyond revisiting history by entering the emotional terrain that hovers over us today.
Once I began the dialogue with the protagonists and the visionary musicians that I encountered in my quest, I allowed myself to express my personal concerns of today and I began to feel that there was a chance for such a minor redemption, even it is still bathed in the blues.
Written & Directed by
Peter Stastny
Production
Peter Stastny,
Lucia Schrenk,
Transmitter Film (Roland Hablesreiter, Tom Eichtinger)
Director of Photography:
Lisa Rinzler
Sound:
Andrey Radovski
Editor:
Siobhan Dunne
Associate Producers:
Nira Burstein, Jon Kauffman
Musicians:
Anthony Coleman (piano, keyboards)
Frank London (trumpet)
Marc Ribot (guitar)
Deep Singh (percussion)
Organizational Funders:
BKA
ORF
Nationalfond
Zukunftsfond
Stadt Wien MA7
Claims Conference
Fractured Atlas
»It is also wonderful that the film is so open and dealing with the present—not a depressing look in the rear view mirror.«
Daniela Nittenberg, art therapist
Elvira Glück, Fondsverwalterin
Victoria Horowitz, painter
contact
filmmaker
Peter Stastny
pestastny@yahoo.com
contact
transmitterfilm
Roland Hablesreiter
redemptionblues@transmitterfilm.at
contact
press and distribution
Katja Seidel (Austria)
katja.seidel@ethnocineca.at